


Ode to the Wanted Children

by ruby_wants_a_cookie



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama & Romance, F/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, may or may not be canon compliant up to chap 109
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 17:38:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15977204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruby_wants_a_cookie/pseuds/ruby_wants_a_cookie
Summary: A series of various stories exploring an alternative universe in which Eren & Historia befriended each other much earlier...and how they face the horrors of war & tragedy together as friends...and eventually more.





	Ode to the Wanted Children

**Author's Note:**

> So I fell for these two so hard, and while I love eremika & yumikuri there's something about these two that just can't leave my mind. And thus, another work that i may or may not continue on was born! lol
> 
> I'm actually not 100% sure if all the stories here will be in the same universe or if my senses get better of me & i just this into a full on randomized one shot collection. But either way, with whatever this becomes, I hope y'all enjoy! Erehisu fandom is so sooo tiny, but with the anime adaptation of Uprising (which is where this trash began for many of us) & recent manga events, I really wanted to try my hand at this ship!
> 
> P.S. Hate or any sort of rude comments regarding the ship will not be tolerated. There won't be any second chances, not with the shit some of my other erehisu bros-in-arms have had to put up with.
> 
> Special thanks to trinidemjazz for betaing this chap for me!

* * *

_So open your eyes and see_

_The way our horizons meet_

_And all of the lights will lead_

_Into the night with me_

_- **Stars, by Ed Sheeran**_

* * *

 

_Smack!_

The gravel dug into his cheek as he lay on the ground, too dizzy to move. He felt a stream of blood slide down from his head, running toward his right eyelid.

In his head, Eren laid every curse he could think of upon the designer of 3DMG. Damn him for making it such a blasted thing to balance on! But that wouldn’t change the fact that he was the laughingstock of his entire class.

All he’d wanted to do was train just a little longer. Mikasa and Armin had already gone to dinner, but Eren had thought he could risk doing training himself, even if Shadis had strongly recommended them all against it.

There was no way he could fail. He’d sworn it on the ruins of his home, and on the blood of his mother he would succeed, the implausibility of his goal be damned. The damn grin which kept haunting his dreams, making his blood boil every time he remembered _that day_ …

“Oh my gosh!” someone called from far away. _A girl’s voice_ , he thought, unless he really was going crazy. Eren couldn’t tell who, darkness already eating away at his vision.

“This looks bad,” she said once she reached him, clearly in distress. “But don’t worry! I won’t let you die here.”

 _Dying..._ Eren thought. _It’s really that bad, huh?_

He felt a tiny, warm hand touch his cheek as the world continued to spin around him.

“Can you hear me?” she asked him.

“Uhhh…”

“Darn it, there’s no one here. Can you stand by yourself?”

“Uhhh...maaaybe.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” she assured him. It took her a little while to get his arm around her shoulder, given how short he was, but he’d managed to somehow get ahold of himself. She had to lead him if he was to be able to go anywhere, but he was able to at least keep himself on his feet.

The next few minutes were disorienting. Eren vacillated in and out of consciousness, but  eventually he soon found himself in the medical office. The nurse there, a bumbly middle aged lady quickly cleaned his wound and bandaged his head. He lay on the cot a little while to recover from his dizziness, when he realized that the girl was still there.

“Uh...hey,” Eren mumbled as he turned to face her.

His savior was a tiny, shy looking girl with blonde, shoulder length hair and blue eyes that were piercing & beautiful. He recalled her to be one of the few girls his fellow trainees would ogle at during training sessions. Which was understandable: she was...well, Eren had to admit she was very pretty. Still, she was a bit of an oddity even amongst the carnival that the 104th class was. She carried a pleasant, cheerful aura which some of the other boys found attractive, but Eren thought she seemed a little hollow in personality and a little annoying because of it. Not that he really cared about hooking up with any of his fellow trainees anyway. .Eren tried not to invest himself too much in his fellow trainees, much less the girls.  He couldn’t really afford to distract himself when he couldn’t even make it into the program.

“Thanks, by the way.”

“Y-You’re welcome,” the girl said shyly. “Uh...I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“Eren. Eren Jaeger. Yours?”

“Krista Lenz.”

“Ah. Thanks Krista.”

“You’re welcome.”

After a brief, yet painfully awkward pause, Krista continued. “So, um, what were you still doing training? Why didn’t you get someone to at least help you?”

Eren sighed. “Promise not to tell? Mikasa and Armin were hungry, so they left to eat first. I was going to go with them, but...hey, what about you? What were you doing back there?”

“It’s dark and I got lost. I thought the dining house was somewhere closer to the training grounds and, well, it’s good I found you when I did, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

Eren had managed to eschew the need for another person to lift him by cranking the wires first, and attaching himself to them later by standing on a large stone he’d found nearby. He’d thought it would be easy to maneuver himself back onto the stone after pushing it aside, but, like many things in his life, this proved futile. Eren winced painfully at the memory of him smacking head first into the stone when he’d flipped face forward for the umpteenth time.

He sighed as he lightly touched his bandaged head. “You know… if I’m not able to balance on the training glider by tomorrow, it’s off to the fields to me. And I sure as hell am not going to go there.”

“Why not?” Krista asked, her brows furrowing. “At least you’ll be safe there...right?”

“Safe?” Eren scoffed. “How can I just stay there while the Titans wander outside Wall Maria, while we starve like caged animals? I just...I need to do something. Otherwise...”

“You don’t want your life to mean nothing,” Krista cut in. “You want to be useful, somehow.”

“...Yeah,” Eren said, surprised at how accurately she’d guessed his motivations. “But I sure as hell want to be useful by killing Titans.”

“You were there, weren’t you? You lived in within wall Maria when the Titans attacked. Lost someone close, or you nearly did, right?” She suddenly looked ashamed of herself. “Sorry! I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“No, it’s alright. And you’re right. You’re exactly right.”

There was a pregnant pause before Krista spoke up again. “Look,” she said, lowering her voice so that the nurse couldn’t hear her. “Right after dinner, right after bedtime starts, meet me in front of the barracks.”

 “Why? I thought we weren’t supposed to be out after curfew?”

“I’m not sure, but is something like that going to stop you?”

Eren thought about it.

“Hell no.”

 

***

 

“Oh wow, how did you...Woah!”

They probably didn’t have much time to practice, given that they were both supposed to be in bed at the moment. So he was going to relish this moment as much as he could with the time they did have. The fear and shame he’d felt that day had instantly evaporated as soon as he realized that he wasn’t falling.

Had the answer really been so simple? Eren looked down at himself in awe at how shockingly easy it was to keep himself balanced. He grinned widely.

“How on earth did you figure it out?” he asked.

“I...had a bit of a hunch, really.” Krista said shyly. “You were the only one who seemed to be struggling, so I figured that we should check if our equipment wasn’t faulty. Ymir’s seemed to be working fine, so I asked to borrow hers since you two look like you’re around the same height. And well, wow!” she exclaimed with a surprised blush. “Looks like you don’t need my help anymore!”

Feeling bold, Eren shifted his weight forward, then back, thinking he could swing on the wires like Sasha did.

It turned out that it wasn’t that easy, but that didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to let anything take away from this pivotal moment.

_Mom...would you have been proud of me?_

“Eren...what’s wrong? A-are you alright?”

Eren looked down at Historia. She looked concerned.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Well...you’re crying.”

Eren touched his cheek. So he was.

He just laughed. “I’m...I’m alright, really.” Eren had to fight the urge to scream to the skies. Had it really been this long since…

“This feels great. I feel great. Lower me down, Krista.”

Krista lowered him. As soon as his boots touched the ground, Eren turned to her.

“Uh, Eren…”

Eren looked down and realized he had embraced Krista, who was looking at him as if he had suddenly grown another head.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry.” Eren released her immediately and began to apologize. “But thanks. Not for the hugging part, though, the helping part…”

His face suddenly flushed warm.

Krista merely returned his awkwardness with a smile. “Anything for a friend, Eren.”

Eren’s eyes widened. “So we’re friends already?”

Krista stopped smiling, and in his head, Eren cursed himself _._ Had it really been that easy to make a new friend? He’d been scolded by his mother incessantly for being unfriendly, and even though he loved Mikasa and Armin to death, he wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity. Krista had risked being punished by suggesting they they train here tonight. And even if he did find her a little strange, he’d gained a newfound respect for her. Although her facade seemed ingenuine, her feelings certainly were; it seemed she truly did care...even for a stubborn idiot like himself.

“Which is totally cool with me, by the way,” he added with a grin. “So, friends?”

He held out his hand, and for a moment, Eren feared that he’d been too upfront with her.

But then, without any sense of the hesitation or uncertainty that she usually displayed, Krista smiled again and shook his hand. Her skin was still as soft & as warm as it had been when she touched his cheek…why was he thinking about that right now?

“Friends,” she echoed, and the exhilarating joy within Eren shot past the stars.

 


End file.
